Trends
My mom is obsessed with The Biggest Loser. Every new season, she is hooked to the
television as she eats low-fat and tasteless food, crying with the contestants every time they lose
more than five pounds a week. Loser is a show in which very big people, usually on the upwards
of 300 pounds, compete in a weight loss competition to win a quarter million dollars.
She is obsessed with any story like this, really. She goes to Weight Watchers every week
and is constantly asking me if she looks awful or not, because she’s recently gained back some
weight. I sigh and shake my head. She has herself convinced that everything will be fine, that she
will be able to like herself, if she loses enough weight. This trend of weight loss “transformation”
and “inspiration” programs like The Biggest Loser promote fat-hate and further dehumanize fat
people.
On the program, the contestants nearly torture themselves in order to lose weight, and
engage in very dangerous behaviors. What some would see as disordered eating behavior –
exercising to the point of collapse, sharing tips on eating less, emotional distress over the scale –
is celebrated and encouraged on the show so the contestants can lose as much weight as possible
in as little time as they can, sometimes losing on the upwards of ten pounds a week. These
people are ashamed of their bodies. It reduces a person down to their weight, dehumanizing
them to a single fact about them upon which to focus, and that the person themselves focus on
as the source of all the problems.
The self-hatred of the contestants in the show is disturbing. The women, especially, are
prone to this. Some will say they don’t feel sexy anymore or that they feel their weight prevents
them from being happy or having a fulfilling life. They will weep over their bodies, just as they
weep over not being able to lose the weight they have gained. In recent seasons, the contestants
begin their weight loss “journeys” with stepping on a scale in front of their whole communities,
and again, usually while they sob over how much they weigh.
1
One incident of self-hatred in particular stands out to me, when a young woman
competing on the show sobbed and said, “I’ve never been in love.” There seems to be this
general attitude in mainstream American culture that a woman’s weight is a direct indicator of
her lovability, as well as her worth. Much of the fat phobia in mainstream American culture is
sexist because of this; the men are more often concerned about being able to care for their
families, while the women are directly concerned with their appearance.
Where does all that shame and self-loathing come from? In American culture, we are
constantly bombarded with images of thin bodies. When we see overweight bodies, they are
often clichés, like the fat jolly mother or the fat bumbling TV dad. But more often than not, the
images we see of overweight bodies are on TV spots on CNN or MSNBC about the obesity
“epidemic.” Images of headless fat bodies walking around, as the news anchor talks over them
about how unhealthy they are, are dehumanizing and again reduce overweight people to the
condition and weight of their bodies.
The most often stated reasons for contestants to be on the show is their health. This is
understandable—being overweight does increase risk for heart disease and other ailments.
However, this is not the case for everyone. Some people don’t have access to fresh fruits and
vegetables, either because they can’t afford it or because they live in “food deserts” where quality
food and grocery are too far away. One has to wonder why fatness is so looked down upon—is it
merely because of health, or is it because richer people can afford fresh foods and time at the
gym?
People do not owe their health to anyone. There seems to be an attitude in mainstream
American culture that if a person is overweight, we should encourage them to lose weight, as
though a fat person’s perceived health problems automatically entitle others to say things about
their bodies. I myself have received comments from complete strangers like, “Oh, you have such
a pretty face,” or my favorite, “You have such a nice personality,” as though I am pretty and
likable in spite of my size eighteen pants, not for just being me.
2
But is it really about health? Cigarette and other tobacco products are dangerous and
cause lung, mouth, and throat cancers. But we don’t see TV shows called “The Biggest Quitter”
or have dramatic, tragic accounts of how people hate themselves and their lungs because they
smoke. I guess after the show was over, no one could marvel about how much healthier and
better their lungs looked.
There have been a couple spin-off programs from The Biggest Loser, one in which one of
the trainers would go to someone’s home to motivate them to lose weight. Most of the people
visited were in even worse mental states about their weight than the contestants on the original
show. One man, a husband and a father, had attempted suicide over his despair at his inability
to lose weight. So instead of getting this poor man to a therapist for some serious therapy, they
just had him exercise more and eat food he didn’t like. I believe the show was cancelled shortly
after this incident.
This isn’t to knock all attempts at weight loss, of course. Exercise feels great, and it keeps
the body strong. But in the Biggest Loser, when the contestants either win the show or come
back after being voted off, their outward appearance is celebrated. Only the ones who had
diabetes will say they no longer have the ailment, because it is often directly associated with
weight. No one says how good their bodies feel, that their blood pressure is down, or that their
potassium levels are stable. It’s all about looking good; meaning, looking good within the
boundaries of the beauty standards of our culture.
These shows also encourage an odd relationship with food—“bad” foods, like macaroni
and cheese or cupcakes, are seen as the enemy. The contestants learn nothing about listening to
their bodies, or being able to let themselves indulge. There is no talk about how to truly enjoy
food, outside of making sure one’s meal does not exceed four hundred calories.
Nor do they learn about how to enjoy their bodies as they are. The body is seen as an
enemy, as something to be molded and controlled. Exercise, then, becomes a means to an end,
3
rather than doing something for the sake of enjoying it. This reinforces the idea that the body is
something to be presented to others, rather than belonging only to the person themselves.
The contestants only learn about control and restrictions. They only learn how to
celebrate their bodies in the defined constructs of a culture that values thinness. These people
hate themselves for being fat, and no one ever tells them that they are so much more than their
weight. Not only that, but they are never taught how to love and celebrate their bodies regardless
of how the culture at large reacts to fat bodies.
Shaming someone over their bodies will not make them lose weight. It will just make
them hate themselves to the point where depression and even suicidal thoughts can occur.
Being healthy is wonderful. However, what is healthy is different for everyone in both
numbers and what their bodies feel. Our bodies belong to no one but ourselves. I am not
advocating that people stop trying to lose weight or be healthy—but shaming people into fitting
into the culturally accepted standards of beauty is both unhealthy and unethical.
4